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news.ImQuest Pharmaceuticals has licensed a series of anti-HIV compounds discovered by Korea's Samjin Pharmaceutical. ImQuest plans to develop the lead inhibitor in this series, IQP-0410, as a front-line therapy for HIV infection.
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The drug class, called pyrimidinediones, consists of unique compounds that possess two highly effective mechanisms of action against HIV; inhibition of reverse transcriptase (RT), and inhibition of virus entry into target cells.
ImQuest expects to file an investigational new drug application with the FDA in the fourth quarter of 2006. According to the terms of the licensing agreement, ImQuest Pharmaceuticals will provide complete preclinical and clinical drug development support for these 68 molecules.
Additionally, ImQuest BioSciences has initiated evaluations of these compounds for efficacy against other infectious disease organisms.
“After extensive preclinical evaluations which have demonstrated significant potency and lack of toxicity of IQP-0410, we believe that the pyrimidinediones may become a front line therapy in the fight against HIV, combining the potency of the RT inhibitor Sustiva with the entry inhibitory capacity of Fuzeon in one simple molecule,” said Dr Robert Buckheit, president and chief scientific officer at ImQuest Pharmaceuticals.